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Tomatos & Cucumbers = Gazpacho

I am hardly a gardener much less a farmer, and I’m lucky thins thing isn’t dead already. I got the drip-system back up and running, so it’s responsible for the moisture not me.
Now the Early Girl plant has shot-up in crazy-height, out-growing its square cage-surround, and has begun to produce fruits. Yay!
Also the cucumbers have sprouted. Some nubby variety that my wife likes and remembers her Aunt having grown, down in Sutter Creek when she was a child.
So far the subterranean crawler-creatures (voles?) have not yet eaten the tender roots of either plant-lings, but they have attacked my neighbor’s much more extensive garden. I found a dead one up on the embankment this spring when we attacked that site, which was probably run-over by garden equipment or the weedwacker.

Gazpacho can be a bit messy to make and we tried some shortcuts. Also I got some quart-size “Kerr” jars to handle the excess and put in the ‘fridge. I’m not big advocate of home canning, but the jars are useful if you run out of beer-mugs.
Vitamix Gazpacho:
Dump in a bunch of V-8 juice.
Add a chopped and peeled cucumber.
Add a medium tomato or two.
Throw-in a small container (5 or 6oz.) of Pico de Gallo from the grocery store.
1/3rd cup cheap red-wine vinegar.
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.
Splash a bunch of hot-sauce on top.
Add a few inches of ice to make cold.
Run the blender on high.
Gazpacho! Is it a soup, or a food, or a bar-mix? You decide.

They are voracious and eat all the time, but are hard to find in the day time. Take a UV LED flashlight after dark and shine it on your plants. the hornworms will glow and standout against the tomato foliage. Pick them off and smash them. Keep on it because they can strip a tomato plant in no time.